


big brother ain't got nothing on me

by C_AND_B



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Lena Luthor Knows Kara Danvers Is Supergirl
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-07
Updated: 2019-10-07
Packaged: 2020-11-27 03:24:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20941499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/C_AND_B/pseuds/C_AND_B
Summary: kara can't stop watching lena. all the time. all the places. all the feelings. all the frustration.





	big brother ain't got nothing on me

**Author's Note:**

> i don't know how i feel about this but i'm fighting a block and i don't wanna look at this keysmash anymore so have it. supercorp endgame

It starts when they’re finally okay again.

It starts once Lena has forgiven her for the pain she caused, even if all unintentional. Once they’re really _okay_ again, not just tentatively trying. It starts abruptly, or maybe Kara just notices it abruptly but it kind of comes and slaps her in the face out of nowhere and then she can’t stop noticing. All she can do it notice, notice, notice.

It starts when there’s nothing looming over them. No more secrets. No more hiding. No more somewhat lies. Kara feels lighter. Lena had always made her feel light but it had always been a little like sunshine peeking through the clouds and now it was all blue skies. Kara really liked blue skies.

And apparently she also liked looking at Lena.

So, she supposes, the previous statement was a lie because she did have a secret. A new one to replace the old one. Another skeleton for the closet. Something else to be whispered behind the curtain’s back. Except this one she was hiding from everyone, including herself, because she couldn’t quite figure out why she was staring _all the time_.

They’re having lunch. They’re just having lunch and it feels normal again. It feels normal again to be on the couch – laughing, joking, forcing Lena to eat extra grease and letting Lena talk her into lettuce with that one tone of voice and a taunting eyebrow cock.

It feels normal except for the fact that Kara is suddenly so aware of the light pouring onto Lena’s skin. She never really cared about architecture before but she finds herself thinking about whomever it was that decided to put so many windows in her office. They deserved an award. They deserved a plaque on the front of the building thanking them for their service.

She was luminous. The light played on the contours of her face, danced along her cheekbones like ballerinas across a stage. It makes her eyes sparkle and Kara always thought she knew the colour of Lena’s eyes but maybe she wasn’t so sure. All she knew for sure was that Lena was beautiful. Not just objectively. Not in the way that she thought Alex’s smile was sweet or the waves in Nia’s hair were unparalleled. In the way that made Kara’s chest squeeze. All too harshly. All too tight.

“Do I have something on my face?” Lena asks, confusion and curiosity evident as she vaguely wipes at her face in hopes of catching whatever it is on her face. Kara doesn’t know how to tell her that she has absolutely no hope of achieving that feat.

“No you’re- No,” Kara ends lamely and Lena, in the most Lena like fashion, notes the stutter with a furrowed brow and immediately sweeps it under the carpet, accepting the answer. It’ll probably bite Kara in the ass later, the game of chess she’s entered herself into without thought, but she accepts it too. It ends with Lena surreptitiously wiping her mouth and checking her thumb for anything left behind and Kara allowing herself one last unadulterated look before forcing her eyes away.

They find their way back to Lena in five minutes anyway.

* * *

Lena wears her hair up a lot. Pristine ponytails in the lab, perfect braids for the boardroom, smooth buns for meetings and messy ones for late nights in her office and rushed lunches where she almost forgets she was supposed to meet Kara but always, somehow remembered in the chaos even if she forgets a thousand other things in the process.

Kara had seen Lena’s hair up a million times but she’d never actually watched the process. She supposed she never actually watched a lot of things until she suddenly watched them all.

It felt like a ritual. A ritual that Kara had been gently breaking down to its essential parts for weeks until it was all she could see whenever she zoned out, until it was the reason she was zoning out.

Lena fiddles with her hair tie a second without ever stopping what she’s doing - the same black one she always seems to have with her, whether it rests on her wrist or in her pocket or wrapped around the bottle on her desk so she can pull and flick it when she’s frustrated.

That’s when it really begins, when she lifts up her hands, gathers her hair with precise fingers that never seem to falter for a second. They never drop a strand, never hesitate, just swiftly move through the motions and Kara knows it’s an ordinary thing, knows that most people do it with ease too but she can’t seem to beat the fascination.

The fascination in the way her bones dance just beneath her skin, following familiar steps, twisting her hair and slipping the tie into place with practised dexterity and Kara knows it’s an oxymoron but it’s the perfect messy bun - if only for the perfect view of the slope of Lena’s neck, or that one perfect freckle that Kara suddenly really needs to know the taste of.

She wants to do a lot of things all of a sudden. Like run her own hands through Lena’s hair, gather it up for her and tie in some vague excuse for scratching across her scalp, for feeling the silky smooth strands pass along her fingertips. And maybe it was herself she was lying to this time because it wasn’t a secret why she was watching, she knew very well why she couldn’t tear her eyes away.

They’re supposed to be watching a film. Kara’s watching nothing but Lena, was doing so long before she put her hair up, couldn’t drag her eyes away after.

She almost thought they’d never have this ease again. Never thought Lena would let her leg rest against Kara’s so closely or occasionally bump her hand with her own. Never thought they’d share a blanket or that Lena would ever dare steal food from her plate when she thought Kara was distracted (when Kara always noticed and always pretended that she didn’t).

“Do you not like the movie? I will remind you that I voted for The Two Towers but you were having none of it.” Lena turns to her with a smile, half amused and fully wrapped in an _‘I told you so’_. Kara can’t even really dispute it; she has no idea if she likes the movie or not, hasn’t really paid attention since the title card appeared and, judging by the emotional tension being displayed on the screen, they’d at least made it three quarters into the movie.

“Giant spiders are scary,” she argues weakly and Lena lets out a short laugh as she rolls her eyes.

“We literally watched Chamber of Secrets last week.”

“Yeah but that’s different.” It wasn’t all that different. Kara had stared at Lena for that entire movie too (she’d just actually seen that movie before so lying about how much she was enjoying it was far easier to do – it was all just ‘_of course I’m watching, Harry just did, insert reckless thing here’_).

“You’re an idiot,” Lena says good-naturedly, in that one way that makes Kara feel warm, understood, like Lena knows she’s an idiot and likes her anyway, likes her because of it. She wishes that meant more than it does. She turns back to the screen then. Kara doesn’t follow suit, just blushes and grins until Lena blindly reaches for her face and pushes it towards the screen. “Watch,” she demands.

Kara watches for all of three minutes before she loses focus again.

* * *

Lena withstands, yet another, attempt on her life and tries to carry on like it’s a regular Tuesday – namely because for her it is a regular Tuesday, but the people around her have the good sense to panic a little more. It fills Kara with warmth to know she’s not the only one having a minor freak-out about it this time, that she has freak-out friends, a freak-out family.

Brainy starts sending her morning texts about the probability of her being attacked in certain places in the day and Kara’s not entirely sure the effort is helpful but it is sweet in his own way. J’onn starts walking past the office every hour or so to check for suspicious activity. Kara mostly follows her normal behaviour - bringing Lena lunch and offering to fly her home and forcing her to hang out at her apartment in the evenings instead of hanging out alone at her own apartment or the office.

And then there’s Alex. Alex who insists on Lena coming in to show her skills, prove that she actually can handle herself like she claims. Lena got angry when she first asked, annoyed at being underestimated again, frustrated that people didn’t trust her to take care of herself when she had essentially been doing it her entire life.

Then she calms down. Takes a breath and realises that for one of the first times in her life it completely comes from someone caring about her. _Really caring about her_. Then she melts. Kara can see it in her posture, in her soft eyes and gentle words - the acceptance that all Alex wants is peace of mind, is to be able to talk herself out of panic mode by telling herself Lena can hold her own until Alex can make it there to help, the same way she does with Kara even if she’s super-powered.

So Lena agrees like a smart person and Kara goes along to watch like a complete idiot. The biggest idiot in the universe because she completely underestimates how much all of it pushes her to a place she’s never really found herself before. That place being her putting all her strength into clenching her thighs together for some kind of relief.

It’s just really… _something_.

Lena starts in yoga pants and a zip-up hoodie, her hair in a perfect braid that Kara had watched her craft in less than a minute (that was her first mistake). It all started easy enough. Alex put on mitts, barked out orders and watched with inquisitive eyes as Lena executed them all with precision.

It was impressive. The ease. The speed. The power Kara could hear in every hit as her hands smacked into the mitts. Alex nodded every so often; quietly proud but never showing it enough for anyone other than Kara to pick up on it, and even that was only based on years of experience.

Then Alex starts swinging without warning. Lena growls when one pad hits her on the side of the head, pulls her jumper off with renewed aggression until she’s in nothing but a tank top. There’s gentle definition in her arms. A slight semblance of a tan on them as they tense and strain and relax in a cycle. Her hands flex and it ripples through her body in such a miniscule way like a drop of water in a lake and Kara feels the way it disrupts her entire nervous system.

Alex rids herself of the mitts until it’s more of a full frontal fight than any real training session. Lena carries herself like a debutant but fights like a brawler. Power and punches and not so much finesse. She doesn’t do twirls and fancy footwork. She’s clever and she’s a brute.

Kara watches a thousand plans run through her eyes in every one moment and there never seems to be a real end in sight. Both of them are panting, rolling their necks and bouncing on their feet with far less energy than when they started. The wear and tear beginning to show. But Kara still can’t seem to predict how it’ll end and then Lena clicks her neck and groans in relief like she had been attempting to achieve that since the beginning of time and Kara honest to Rao moans in response.

_Moans_.

The shock of the sound rattles through the room. Kara flinches. Alex cocks a brow. Lena completely loses her focus, her head tilting towards Kara and her legs being taken out from under her by Alex until she’s pinned to the mat. Lena doesn’t take her eyes off Kara the whole time, watches her strangely even as she taps out, makes no attempt to keep fighting - more important questions on her mind now, a new laser focus.

“You’re good, Luthor,” Alex says, standing and offering her own hand. It’s quickly accepted.

“You’re not so bad yourself, Danvers. Even if you did convince your sister to help you cheat,” it’s said jokily but there’s a slight hint of real questioning to which Alex just laughs, shooting Kara a look that screams _I know your secret_ but thankfully doesn’t lead to anything else. Her lips tightly sealed as she exits the room with no sense of an actual answer to the unspoken question. 

Kara throws a towel at Lena’s face and pretends an agent called her name about something urgent before Lena can right herself again to vocalise any thought she was having.

Kara doesn’t have the answer.

Or she does and she’s completely terrified of saying it out loud.

* * *

Kara doesn’t know why she thought this Moroccan restaurant would be a good idea.

She thought eating with their hands would be fun, novel, a bit of a screw you to Lena’s childhood of every single utensil for every single thing. And it was those things. It was also total torture watching Lena’s tongue dart around her fingers, and her lips following suit to suck them clean. The way she wiped her bottom lip with her thumb, dragged the lip slowly and let it bounce back into place when she was done. The way she devoured, devoured, devoured that, for lack of another word to completely encapsulate the way it was making Kara feel inside, _fuck_.

Just _fuck_.

She’s supposed to be eating, supposed to be enjoying all these delicious foods and new flavours, supposed to be stuffing her face with more than she should ever be able to eat and causing people to look at her with shock, awe and mild alarm but instead she’s the one awe-struck.

She’s managed to remember to eat all of about three bites before Lena regards her softly, wiping her own hands on her napkin in order to gently take one of Kara’s remarkably still ones. Kara almost flinches with the realisation that the very thing she had been hyper-focused on for far too long was actually coming into contact with her skin. Then she reminds herself that this is her best friend and she’s being a complete and total weirdo.

“Are you still worried about that article?” Kara furrows her brow in confusion, mostly because she can’t remember anything in her life before these past thirty minutes watching Lena. “You’ve barely touched the food. You were talking about how hungry you were the whole way here.”

“Yes, worried. I am worried. Worried I am.” _Okay, Yoda, calm down._ Thank Rao Lena still had the sense to be a normal human being, offering comfort and taking Kara’s stuttered sentences as her cue to try and fix things. Even if she’s attempting to fix all the wrong things.

“There’s nothing you can do now. You’ve sent it off; it’s out of your hands. And I know I’m incredibly biased but it was really good. You’re really good.” Lena squeezes her hand for extra effect and it makes Kara feel better, even if Kara didn’t realise she felt bad in the first place.

“You’re really good,” Kara retorts by reflex.

Lena smirks, “Well I know but we’re talking about you.”

“Thanks, Lena,” she sighs, momentarily dropping the tension from her shoulders.

“Always. Now stop just watching me eat this and help me out.” Kara doesn’t need to be asked twice but the tension seeps back in within seconds and she still spends most of the time watching Lena, just with more food scoffing in between the really intense looks.

She gets kind of good at it actually, to the point where she considers adding it as another skill to her super-resume. Not that she has any choice in the matter. She has to get good. She couldn’t stop looking if she tried. She knows. She attempted it several times until she just gave in.

There was no point fighting the inevitable.

Especially when the inevitable looked like that.

* * *

She thought Game Night might distract her. She thought it might be just enough chaos to capture her attention. She thought it might be just enough people vying for her attention that she’d be forced to split it at least somewhat equally (spoiler alert: it’s not).

She watches Lena play all evening. Catalogues her every movement, every facial expression to the point where the almost thinks she’s being creepy.

She makes note of her happy win face, where her smile was all teeth and no inhibitions, when it was aimed at Kara with an air of ‘see I told you we were going to win that one’. She pays attention to her concentration face, where she bites her lip and narrows her eyes and visibly thinks through a thousand motions four steps ahead before she makes a single move - even on the most basic of games. She captures her sad ‘I should’ve won face’ that comes with an almost imperceptible pout and a twinkle of determination to not lose again.

She watches it all and everything is different. Every feeling comes with its own set of quirks and expressions and different looks Kara’s way for support in her feelings to the point where Kara readies her quick happy grin or consolatory smile, so she can make it seem like that’s why she was looking in the first place and not because she just hadn’t stopped looking for hours.

Truthfully making those preparations was easier than looking at anyone else and seeing their ‘_will you just tell her you like her already’_ faces being displayed in various ways despite them all being ultimately tinged with complete exasperation.

People start leaving before Kara has even comprehended that the evening is ending and she’s thankful that Lena hangs back without thought, citing her need to help Kara clean up as her excuse for them to have some best friend time. It always used to be a thing. Kara is glad it still is.

She’s glad she gets to see Lena in the aftermath. Glad she gets to witness the look on her face – the one that’s a little tired but happy, so happy and truly content and Kara doesn’t want her to go, wants to wrap up this moment and keep it forever on her shelf so she does something reckless and asks Lena to stay. Like really _stay_, stay, not just let’s finish this bottle of wine and wait for Clive to come pick you up because that man always seems to be on the clock stay.

She hasn’t stayed since the secret came out, since the fallout and consequent make up and even before then it was rare - the two of them not sure where the best friend line stood, not well versed enough in having someone like that in their lives. But Lena shows none of that on her face as she agrees to the request. She replies like it’s easy. Like it’s a normal occurrence between them and Kara’s thankful that Lena always seems to know how to react to calm her nerves, that it’s natural.

Kara allows herself a moment of excitement before the nerves set in, before she realises she didn’t really think this whole thing through, before she’s in her bedroom handing Lena clothes to wear and is suddenly so aware that Lena’s going to be in her clothes. In her room, in her bed, in her clothes.

She blames the nerves for the fact that it doesn’t click that that’s the moment she should busy herself with something else or avert her eyes or something, literally anything. Usually she would make a show of putting her hands over her eyes and turning around for good measure but not today. Today she just stands and stares, feels like her eyes are superglued to the moment, and Lena, well, Lena seems to trust Kara is being chivalrous as always and pulls her shirt over her head.

Kara freezes. She still can’t turn away. Lena reaches backwards for her bra in what seems like tired autopilot. The snap is paired with a choked sound from Kara as she inhales her own spit, and by her own estimation, almost drowns. Lena’s eyes flick up, her bra still held up by her shoulders, threatening to slip but not quite. She just sort of stares, suspended in the moment. Kara stares right back.

And would it be a total misuse of Kara’s powers to maybe cause some slight wind in her bedroom to tempt the straps further down her arms? It probably would. But it also probably wasn’t going to kick-start her descent into villainy either so maybe she could do something morally questionable just this once.

“Are you planning to watch me change?” Lena asks, laughter evident in her voice but not featuring heavily in her eyes. Her bra slips an inch further. Kara panics.

“Uhh, no? What? I'm grading you! Congratulations, you get an A!”

Lena scoffs, “Please I deserve an A+ and you know it.” Her bra slips a little more and Kara knows she would give her no less than full marks when she pairs it with a cocked brow like she’s almost daring Kara to watch. She wants to. She really _wants _to.

She doesn’t. She almost waivers as she hears the shuffling behind her back, as she stares at her bedroom wall and wonders if it’s time to redecorate, if maybe that could capture her attention for more than five seconds. She about passes out when Lena’s next words are, “You can turn round now, professor.”

A shiver runs down Kara’s spine and honestly she may have to revisit _that_ at some point. Some point being when she wasn’t having an absolute gay meltdown about how soft and cute Lena looks in her shorts and shirt, how much more Kara loves them when they hug her curves. Kara gestures awkwardly to her own pyjamas then, makes a vague motion to any area that doesn’t hold Lena.

“I’m just gonna…”

“Okay, Kara,” Lena says simply and there’s none of the heat from before. Just the usual softness that Kara likes to think is reserved for her, and, Kara doesn’t know if it’s the wine or just the fact that she finds herself craving the husk from before, but it makes her feel reckless. It makes her feel bold.

She pulls her shirt over her head in a flash, a little too quick to be human, a little too fast to be completely cool. She snaps her bra in an instant before she can question it. It’s her turn to play the game now, to be the one with the upper hand. Taunting. Teasing. Her turn to figure out if this is nothing more than a joke, if it’s something more, if it’s always been more.

She hears Lena swallow, watches as her throat bobs harshly. Listens to her lips part and her breath shudder through the open space like the air itself was trembling.

“You definitely pass the class,” Lena mumbles, stepping closer. Closer. Closer still. Kara freezes, eyes wide and body tensed with anticipation until Lena sidesteps around her. “I’m going to get a glass of water, would you like one?” Kara nods mutely, Lena hums in acknowledgement before disappearing into the kitchen. Kara listens to Lena splashing water on her face, the gentle running of the tap for far longer than usual, the squeak of wet hands gripping the stainless steel surface a little too hard.

They pretend like nothing happened when Lena comes back. Just get into bed and sleep like friends do. If friends gravitate towards each other in the night and tangle up in one another.

Kara doesn’t have much experience but she doesn’t think they do.

She’s like ninety-nine percent sure they don’t.

* * *

“I’m sorry, you what?!” Alex almost spits her coffee at Kara. She had been half expecting there to be no almost about it, which is why she switched their early morning coffee meet-up to her apartment rather than the cute, little café that just opened up down the street - she didn’t want to get banned before she had tasted their entire pastry section and made her mind up about whether or not it was better than the one across the road from Lena’s office (not that she was ever going to stop going to the one near Lena’s office. It was the perfect excuse to see her when she had no excuses left).

“I’m only telling you this because I can’t tell anyone else and you can’t tell anyone else either because Nia already produced a PowerPoint about how Lena and I are obviously into one another and she dragged Brainy into presenting it and I can’t handle _that_ being put in there as evidence.” There was artwork the last time. Kara was both oddly impressed and hugely horrified that it was a pretty solid likeness of the two of them.

“Kara it was one thing when you were spending every waking moment staring at her but now you’re flashing her in your room and then climbing into bed with her like that’s normal.”

“I didn’t _flash _flash her,” Kara argues, it feels weak even to her ears, like the kind of argument you should really keep to yourself because if you have to argue technicalities you’ve probably already stepped in something you shouldn’t have. Kara couldn’t stop thinking about stepping in it. The thing she stepped in. The thing she most definitely would step in again. The thing she half hoped would step on her in the not so distant future.

“You played gay chicken with Lena Luthor in your bedroom and only didn’t flash her because she flinched first.” Kara would argue but well… that actually did pretty much cover it. “Please for the love of god can you just ask her out already? You like her and she obviously likes you.”

“What if she doesn’t? What if she’s just going along with it because I’m her best friend and she doesn’t want to lose me by telling me she doesn’t actually like me because she feels like then she’d lose all of us at once and is scared to be alone again because this is the first time she’s ever felt like she’s really had a family and really belonged somewhere?”

“How long have you spent at night concocting that insane panic thought?” Too long. Way too long. Pretty much since the first second she considered she might actually like Lena as more than a friend. Alex sighs at the pregnant pause, the one that speaks volumes over what Kara could’ve actually put into words. “Kara, Lena is a big girl and she’s not one to be pushed into things. If she was she’d be showing you the inside of a kryptonite coffin, not her boobs. Just trust what’s right in front of you – you’ve spent enough time looking at it.”

“You really think she’ll let me see her boobs?” Kara says earnestly and Alex throws her coffee on her. Literally a mostly full, boiling hot cup of coffee that she throws without hesitation onto Kara’s chest. It takes Kara a full minute to reboot. It’s more startling than it is painful but there is a full minute of silence in which Kara considers that Alex really threw a boiling beverage on her without a second thought, without a moment of thinking maybe that wasn’t a great thing to do.

And then there’s the moment in which she still can’t form the words to explain the huge feeling of what the absolute fu- “Did you just-?”

“Please, that didn’t hurt and you have a full wardrobe of clothes like fifteen feet away,” Alex brushes it off quickly, already busying herself with refilling her cup with another boiling hot beverage that Kara was going to have to add to the list of things to be weary of when in consideration of Alex – right after potatoes, pillows and pizza slices (a litany of p’s).

“I like this shirt.”

“I like my sanity.”

That might have been fair enough.

Though it did still leave one burning question.

Would she let Kara see her boobs?

* * *

Kara had always been more of a do-er than a thinker. She has considered that that’s a bold statement considering she’d spent the past few months doing nothing but thinking about all the things she could be doing if only she was bold enough to do them instead of think of them.

Like kiss Lena, or tell Lena she was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen in her life, or kiss Lena. The repetition of that one particular want is what she blames for the most reckless moment of her life (almost, completely intentional boob flash included). The moment in which, in the middle of a grocery store on a Friday night as they shop for brownie mix, just the two of them and the half asleep cashier waiting to go home, she stops staring at Lena from an almost surreptitious distance and instead decides to stare at her up close, with Lena’s face cupped in her hands and about two inches away.

“Kara, what-?”

“I can’t stop looking at you.” Now included, though that was maybe a given considering she was all Kara could see right now, literally and metaphorically. Maybe she should back up a little bit. But maybe she thought she would absolutely chicken out if she was even an extra inch from Lena.

“You…?”

“Ever since you forgave me, it’s all I can do. Just look at you. I thought maybe I was just thankful that I got the chance to do it again. Then I thought maybe it was crafted from panic, the thought that I had better memorise every inch of you in case you disappeared again and I suddenly couldn’t remember your face. And then I realised that I can’t stop looking at you because I think you’re like the first glimpse of a rainbow after a downpour, or like the sky at sunset, or, or the faint glow of Rao in the night sky. I can’t think of the right words but I know I can’t stop. I don’t want to stop.”

“So you think I’m pretty?” Lena jokes but it’s thick.

“I think you’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen – and I’ve witnessed two planets.”

“I need you to stop looking at me.” Kara’s heart drops, her hands start to follow suit before Lena catches them and presses them back against her jaw. “Just for a second. Close your eyes.” Kara’s powerless to do anything but obey and she’s glad she does when Lena kisses her.

It’s short and sweet at first, an awkward introduction after a long overdue meeting. Then it’s something more intimate. Their lips slide together and Lena pushes and Kara pulls and they really should have done this a long time ago because Kara has never felt so light in her entire life and she can float. She feels a little like she might be floating right then.

She lets her hands map out Lena’s jaw and scratch across her scalp, through the locks that she’d been having increasingly ridiculous dreams about for weeks and it’s even more amazing than she ever could’ve imagined, even when Lena interrupts it with some amalgamation of a moan and a laugh that turns their kiss into a press of smiles more than anything else.

“I was wondering how long it would take for your hands to be in my hair. You’ve been particularly interested in it recently.”

“You noticed?” Kara blushes, she doesn’t know why considering she can still taste Lena’s tongue in her mouth so she obviously has nothing to be embarrassed about, but honestly it feels a little bit embarrassing that Lena knows Kara could literally pick the shade of Lena’s hair from a colour wheel with her eyes closed.

“Just because some of us are more secretive about our staring, doesn’t mean we’re not doing it.”

“So you’ve been watching me? Nerd.”

Lena laughs out, “shut up.” She pushes Kara then, _hard_, hard enough that she thinks it might have done some real damage if she were anyone else. But she’s Kara, so she grabs the attacking hand before it can really makes its mark, starts playing with her fingers, revelling in the way they twitched but made no move to pull away from the inspection. Happy to be seen. Happy to be admired.

“Go to dinner with me? I’d like to openly stare at you from across a table and make incredibly stupid jokes just so that you’ll laugh – even if it’s at me.”

“You had me at dinner.” The second meeting of smiles is no less perfect than the first. Nor is the third, or the fourth, or the fifth, or the one where Kara pretends to lose count because Lena called her a dork for counting, or the one after that where Kara finds Lena’s own counter in her diary.

* * *

(Kara can’t stop looking at Lena.

It’s nice to do it without having to hide, without having anything else looming over them, without having any other secrets. Except the one where Kara might just be head over heels in love with Lena but she has a feeling she might know that already.

Turns out Lena is pretty observant).


End file.
